“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained
by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is
a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of
punishment.” ―Mahatma Gandhi
The Generation Y (people born in the
1980s to early 2000s who are also known as Millennials) are very intelligent
and ambitious. They are rapid thinkers and don’t appreciate bureaucratic
bottlenecks. They appreciate working in flat organizations. They want to grow as chief executives quickly.
They are ready to delay their marriages and sacrifice their family life to
fast-track their careers. They mean business. Most of them are knowledge
workers who can contribute their best with their innovative thinking to improve
organizational bottom lines to achieve organizational excellence and
effectiveness.
Former GE CEO Jack Welch once remarked,
"Generation Y is the most exciting group in the world. They want to do
their own thing, they want to change the world. Technology's changed so fast.
The internet's come; they can do it."
Gen Y thrive on risk and don’t care for job security. They want to work
in a challenging work environment that excites them to unlock their potential. They
are strong on social media and appreciate operating in virtual world. They
enjoy job hopping as they don’t like to work with one employer. They crave for
freedom and flexibility, and are eager to accept leadership roles and
responsibilities. They want to explore and experiment new areas because they
have fire to grow in their careers. They want to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
They want to acquire qualifications and pursue courses to upgrade their skills
and abilities to stay ahead of times and technologies. They don’t appreciate
working under bosses and leaders. They don’t appreciate leadership and
followership. In contrast, they appreciate only partnership. Hence, there is a
need for new leadership which is soft leadership that can fill the rising the expectations
of Gen Y.
Gen Y employees have very high
expectations. It has become a huge challenge for organizations to hire and
retain. Some of them resign from companies on silly reasons. It is tough to
handle and lead them. The best thing is to make them as partners, and lead them
with soft leadership style. As the times have changed, global organizations
must change their leadership styles, tools and techniques to hire and retain
Gen Y. They believe in giving respect
and taking respect. They are brilliant and amazing. They crave for new
leadership that meets their expectations. The soft leadership is the
appropriate leadership style that suits their nature and expectations.
What
is Soft Leadership?
Soft leadership is a blend of both
soft skills and leadership. It is leading with soft skills, communicating
effectively, persuading successfully, respecting the team members, appreciating
diversity, and looking at similarities to accomplish organizational goals and
objectives. During my years of leadership development training programs, some
of the participants are not excited with the current leadership styles. They craved
for a unique leadership style that caters them, and to handle the challenges in
the 21st century. Since I earned my PhD in soft skills, and I am passionate
about leadership, I worked on this trigger and created soft leadership. I have authored
a book on this concept titled, Soft
Leadership: Make Others Feel More Important and published several research
papers and articles for eminent international journals and magazines. It is
getting overwhelming response globally. One of the award-winning research
papers on this concept Soft leadership: a
new direction to leadership, URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17087126
is amongst the most frequently downloaded in Industrial and Commercial
Training, Emerald UK.
Soft leadership consists of 11 Cs – character,
charisma, conscience, conviction, courage, communication, compassion,
commitment, consistency, consideration, and contribution to make a difference
in the lives of their partners. Here are
the examples for each C: Mahatma Gandhi is associated with character, Mikhail
Gorbachev with charisma, Martin Luther King Jr
with conscience, Aung San Sui Kyi
with convictions, Alexander the Great with courage, Winston Churchill with
communication, Mother Teresa with compassion, Nelson Mandela with commitment,
John Wesley with consistency, Dalai Lama with consideration, and Booker T.
Washington with contribution. It differs
from servant leadership.
Significance
of Soft Leadership for Companies and Countries
Soft leadership is to make others feel
important to deliver their goods effectively. It is a people-oriented
leadership without compromising task-orientation. It emphasizes means such as
soft skills, persuasion, negotiation, and communication to accomplish tasks
effectively. This concept can be applied for companies to achieve excellence
and effectiveness, and to countries to achieve peace and prosperity. Hence, let us explore this new leadership
perspective keeping the rising expectations of employees especially Gen Y to
build a better world.
Explore
Soft Leadership
We have enough leadership styles such
as autocratic, democratic, delegative, transactional, transformational,
servant, and situational to name a few. It is time to adopt this new leadership
style. Hence, let us explore and adopt
the soft leadership style to take mankind to greater heights of glory. Let us
hand over a better society to our next generations so they can be proud of us.
Let us become good ancestors.
“Never lose sight of the fact that the
most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people - your
family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.”
―Barbara Bush (born 1925); Wife Of The 41st President Of The United States
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an inspiring article
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